The banyan tree
by ruskin bond
The fight of the cobra and the mongoose is a classic drama often seen in India and the outcome is largely the same. The mongoose is not immune to the venomous bite. But is faster and quicker in motion than the snake. The cobra assumes a posture of defence and attempts to reach the animal by a sweeping strike. But the quick-moving mongoose jumps out of reach and comes at the snake from another direction before the snake can get into striking position again. This constant movement tires and discourages the snake and the mongoose is finally able to leap in close and bury its teeth in the snake’s neck usually severing the joints of its vertebrae. 

You must have seen a banyan tree. This is a story about what the author saw as a young boy when he was sitting in an old banyan tree in his grandfather’s house. 

THOUGH the house and grounds belonged to my grandparents, the magnificent old banyan tree was mine — chiefly because Grandfather, at sixty-five, could no longer climb it. 

Its spreading branches which hung to the ground and took root again forming a number of twisting passages, gave me endless pleasure. Among them were squirrels and snails and butterflies. The tree was older than the house, older than Grandfather, as old as Dehra Dun itself. I could hide myself in its branches behind thick green leaves and spy on the world below. 

My first friend was a small grey squirrel. Arching his back and sniffing into the air, he seemed at first to resent my invasion of his privacy. But when he found that I did not arm myself with catapult or air gun, he became friendly and when I started bringing him pieces of cake and biscuit he grew quite bold and was soon taking morsels from hand. Before long, he was delving into my pockets and helping himself to whatever he could find. He was a very young squirrel, and his friends and relatives probably thought him foolish and headstrong for trusting a human. 

In the spring, when the banyan tree was full of small red figs, birds of all kinds would flock into its branches – the red-bottomed bulbul, cheerful and greedy, parrots, myna and crows squabbling with one another. During the fig season, the banyan tree was the noisiest place in the garden. 

Halfway up the tree I had built a crude platform where I would spend the afternoons when it was not too hot. I could read there propping myself up against the tree with a cushion from the living room. Treasure Island, Huckleberry Finn and The Story of Dr Do Little were some of the books that made up my banyan tree library. 

When I did not feel like reading, I could look down through the leaves at the world below. And on one particular afternoon I had a grandstand view of that classic of the Indian wilds, a fight between a mongoose and a cobra.

The warm breezes of approaching summer had sent everyone including the gardener into the house. I was feeling drowsy myself, wondering if I should go to the pond and have a swim with Ramu and the buffaloes when I saw a huge black cobra gliding out of a clump of cactus. At the same time a mongoose emerged from the bushes and went straight for the cobra. 

In a clearing beneath the banyan tree, in bright sunshine, they came face to face. The cobra knew only too well that the grey mongoose, three feet long, was a superb fighter, clever and aggressive. But the cobra too was a skilful and experienced fighter. He could move swiftly and strike with the speed of light and the sacs behind his long sharp fangs were full of deadly poison. It was to be a battle of champions. 

Hissing defiance, his forked tongue darting in and out, the cobra raised three of his six feet off the ground and spread his broad spectacled hood. The mongoose bushed his tail. The long hair on his spine stood up. 

Though the combatants were unaware of my presence in the tree, they were soon made aware of the arrival of two other spectators. One was a myna, the other a jungle crow. They had seen these preparations for battle and had settled on the cactus to watch the outcome. Had they been content only to watch, all would have been well with both of them. 

The cobra stood on the defensive swaying slowly from side to side, trying to mesmerize the mongoose into making a false move. But the mongoose knew the power of his opponent’s glassy unwinking eyes and refused to meet them. Instead he fixed his gaze at a point just below the cobra’s hood and opened the attack. 

Moving forward quickly until he was just within the cobra’s reach, the mongoose made a pretended move to one side. Immediately the cobra struck. His great hood came down so swiftly that I thought nothing could save the mongoose. But the little fellow jumped neatly to one side and darted in as swiftly as the cobra biting the snake on the back and darting away again out of reach. 

At the same moment that the cobra struck, the crow and the myna hurled themselves at him only to collide heavily in mid-air. Shrieking insults at each other they returned to the cactus plant. A few drops of blood glistened on the cobra’s back. 

The cobra struck and missed. Again the mongoose sprang aside jumped in and bit. Again the birds dived at the snake bumped into each other instead and returned shrieking to the safety of the cactus. 

The third round followed the same course as the first but with one dramatic difference. The crow and the myna, still determined to take part in the proceedings, dived at the cobra. But this time they missed each other as well as their mark. The myna flew on and reached its perch. But the crow tried to pull up in mid-air and turn back. In the second that it took the bird to do this the cobra whipped his head back and struck with great force, his snout thudding against the crow’s body. 

I saw the bird flung nearly twenty feet across the garden. It fluttered about for a while and then lay still. The myna remained on the cactus plant and when the snake and the mongoose returned to the fight very wisely decided not to interfere again! The cobra was weakening and the mongoose, walking fearlessly up to it, raised himself on his short legs and with a lightning snap had the big snake by the snout. The cobra writhed and lashed about in a frightening manner and even coiled itself about the mongoose, but to no avail. The little fellow hung grimly on until the snake had ceased to struggle. He then smelt along its quivering length gripped it round the hood and dragged it into the bushes. 

The myna dropped cautiously to the ground, hopped about, peered into the bushes from a safe distance and then with a shrill cry of congratulation, flew away. 

The Ruin 

"memories are eternal"

I was standing in front of the school.my school actually,just that it was about 26 years ago.i remember each moment that i spent here.it was a magical time,friends ,classes,holidays,tours,fights,scoldings,the list could go on forever.i could still hear the bell ringing ,eager to get us all inside our classes.i could still feel the cool breeze that would favour us by its presence on hot ,humid ,powerless days.i could still see all those eager faces getting restless to go home at 4:00 clock and i could still experience the heart breaking pain when you leave it forever.i had actually left the entire city along with my school.just as my school got over my dad was transferred to delhi ,and i left my school and kerala almost forever. but now i was back, to get one of my certicicates which i lost recently.actually the chance of getting it back was very weak. Any way trying wont hurt,will it?i made my way through the front gate.i was a little surprised to see that the watch man at the gate was absent.maybe he had left to have his lunch,it was noon already.The school had not changed a bit ,the faded cream was still the same and the tulsis appeared eternally unchanging .i went straight through the iron grill and was standing in front of the garden.actually my school has a garden,well sort of a garden ,surrounded by four blocks full of class rooms,the ground floor had the principals office,the chemistry lab, the pt room and sverel classes.the library and physics lab were in the first floor,while maths and biology labs occupied the third floor mainly.and the last floor is the fine arts block ,the computer is lab is also there.and by the way the office is alson in the ground floor and i hoped to get my certificate from there .at present i i could see many cheerful faces running here and there.it was time for the recess.suddenly a girl about 10 years old bumped into me. she was very pretty and said a very long sorry that took almost 3 minutes, and at last gave me one of the smiles that kids often give when in trouble.and shoooo she was off and soon  disappeared into into the crowd.but i felt realy puzzled,that girl looked very familiar though ther was not even a small chance that i had met that girl before.i couldnt make out the reason for that starnge familiarty  that ifelt.but the feeling just got stronger as i saw more faces.every child appeared too familiar ,that i couldnt just beleive that i was seeing them for the first time in my life.But as i was not in a mood to go behind the issue , ijust stopped thinking about it.as i entered  the office,i could see a lady sitting behind the desk her head immersed in a paper.i couldnt see her face.i asked her about my certificates and she just replied without lifting her head even for a moment.i thought it was realy rude of her , not looking in the face while talking.but after a fifeteen minutes conversation ,i could almost make out that i was not gonna get that certificate of mine.i was realy disappointed ,but was not gonna make my visit a waste,i got permission from her to look around and see the school.but i was not permitted to enter any classrooms,lab,orcanteen.but roaming around was more than enough for me.i started my journy , iwent through all the passages ,and corridors.what caught my attention was that nothing,absolutely nothing had changed.everything looked just as they did when i last saw them.and even the smell had not changed.though i was i surprised i didnt take all that into my head and decided to enjoy the rest of my journy.at last  i came back to the starting and was about to reach the gate,when i suddenly saw someone standing there ,holding a torch and a wooden stick .it was the watchman ,i could make out.and when i came closer i saw his face clearly and couldnt breathe ,it was the same old man who was here when i had left,and he had not aged a bit.i just coulndnt beleive myself.and the i turned my head ,dont know why,and saw the lady whom i saw in the office ,standing there at the grill,and igaped when i saw her .she too was the same lady who worked here almost 27 years ago ,and hadnt aged a day,even her saree seemed the same.she was smiling at me.all this was too much for m and i just raan out of the gate ,took my scooter and headed back home.i couldnt find any beleivable explanation for all those things.at last i just comforted myself saying that maybe that lady was the daughter of the earlier one and that would be the cause of this similarity.and just i was on my way i saw a man ,a young man with sparking eyes.he smiled at me ,and i stopped my scooter.he wanted a lift to the nearby bus stop and i readily agreed.as we neared our destination,he asked me my name and whereabouts and enquired why i was here.i gave him the details and told him the cause of this visit .he looked shocked when i told him about the day at my school."are you sure" he asked me , but i couldnt make out what he was refering to. he explained himself ,by telling me that the school which iwas referring to had been demolished a couple of years ago,the watchman lost his job and died due to extreme poverty i year back and the lady at the office ,she had retired and is leaving a peaceful life in her village.according to him there was absolutely no way that what i saw today was true unless i was dreaming.i heard him in silence,thoughts rushed into my mind like a hurricane,and my ability to reason was lodt.i didnt know whether to beleive him or not,he appeared mad to me ,because i was pretty sure that whatever happened today was real.as i was thinking we reached the bus stop ,and he got off he waved me goodbye.but i couldnt wave back,i was so immersed in my thoughts that i scarcely noticed hids departure. my thoughts were at last disturbed by a intense honking behind me. thats when i saw that i was  in the midst of a traffic jam which i had created myself.i got out of that mess,but not without being shouted at by an old man who got stuck in that jam. just as i got out i  turned back my scooter and once again was heading towards my school.i dont know why i did that ,but i had an intese feeling that i should find out the reality .i soon reached the sme place and looked through the school gates . i was at a lossfor words.i couldnt beleive my own eyes,where a few minute ago stood a magnificient building  full of chattering children and staff,stoo an enormous wreck of an old building.i could make out that it wasthe same old building ,but  it was comletely ravaged ,and no one absolutely no one was present ther.i could now make out the reason for the familiar faces that i saw today and the all those strange feelings that i had.i couldnt bear the heart breaking sight anymore,i turned my head away and started walking back to my scooter.once my back was turned i started hearing the chatters once more.icould also hear the bell ringing ,eager to get everyone back to work,and i could also hear the eager footsteps of  the staffs . i didnt turn back , i still am not sure why,but i could feel tears rolling down my eyes, i wondered why i didnt see my own face among all those eager faces today .

 So ,here i have some tales,not realy old as time,☺but simple tales which i hope would interest you.As a starting i would be posting some stories written by me and would be realy happy if you read them.i would also post world famous tales written by famous writers